Is There a Public Listing of Local Business Owners Who Voted for Trump So I Can Boycott Them?

Is there a public listing of local business owners who voted for Trump so I can boycott them? Thank you! —Nan G.

I hate to rain on your parade, Nan—especially since it's already a funeral parade—but (a) that's not going to do a damned bit of good, and (b) no.

Let's address the second objection first. As you would recall if there were still such a thing as high school civics classes, the U.S. has a long tradition of voting by secret ballot, rendering your proposed mini-reprisal impossible.

It was not always thus—until the late 19th century, each party would print its own pre-filled ballots, which were easily distinguishable from their rivals' slates by color. Anyone hanging around the polls could easily tell who you'd voted for.

This turned out to be very handy for anyone who might have paid you for your vote, and by 1888, vote-buying was so rampant, flagrant, blatant—and possibly even piquant—that everyone agrees it cost Grover Cleveland the presidency. Most states adopted secret balloting (pioneered in Australia—shout-out!) soon thereafter.

And anyway, even if you could boycott Trump voters, that's a pretty anodyne response to a pretty intractable problem.

That problem, by the way, isn't that we're totally fucked now (though we are). The problem is that we've been almost totally fucked since 2010, and nobody noticed. That's when Republicans captured enough statehouses to gerrymander the congressional map.

Since then, Barack Obama has essentially been playing goalie on a one-man hockey team, but only now that the ice is completely empty is the well-deserved panic setting in.

In short, your mission isn't to switch gutter-cleaning services, it's to get those state legislatures back before the 2020 redistricting, assuming we live that long.

Howard Dean had a good grip on this idea, and there are rumors he may come out of mothballs to revive the 50-state strategy (Google it). Unprecedented quantities of money directed to state legislative races by folks like you would certainly help. Focus, people, focus.

QUESTIONS? Send them to drknow@wweek.com.

Willamette Week